City of Sacramento Files Arena Environmental Impact Report

The report touches on 20 "project issues" including noise, air quality, flooding, sewer capacity, and traffic.

The city says the downtown site would be designed to reduce greenhouse gases.

The report says non-vehicle traffic to events could increase by ten-to-fifteen percent.

Assistant City Manager John Dangberg says, "The origination point for those who attend events out at Sleep Train -a full ten percent of those originated from the downtown zip code."

Dangberg says an increase in foot and bicycle traffic would only help a system that is already equipped to handle event traffic.

"Downtown Sacramento has very robust infrastructure that handles about 100,000 people every morning and every evening who are coming into the downtown to work and then leaving to go home," says Dangberg. "So, we have very robust infrastructure that -after those two peak commute hours- is really under-utillized."

Dangberg says the city will develop a traffic management plan for events.

The report says traffic on streets around what is now the Downtown Plaza will likely be altered during events. Two bus stations would also likely be relocated.

The project calls for the demolition of 857,943 square feet of Downtown Plaza buildings and the construction of a 780,000 square foot arena and practice facility with as much as 1,500,000 square feet of retail, housing, and hotel space.

The arena would be accompanied by what is called a "comprehensive signage program" and a half-dozen digital billboards in other parts of Sacramento.

The signs are one of two primary environmental concerns the city identifies.

The report says the city plans to avoid disturbing any endangered species or provide for mitigation.

The City will host a public workshop on the report Wednesday evening at Sacramento City Hall. The City promises to take public comment on the report through the end of January and respond to each submission by mid-March.

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Bob reports on all things northern California and Nevada. His coverage of police technology, local athletes, and the environment has won a regional Associated Press and several Edward R. Murrow awards. Read Full Bio